Medical research supports the use of calming images to reduce stress and to create a healing environment. See for example, the 1995 study conducted by Clare Cooper Marcus, Mass., MCP and Marni Barnes, MLA, LCSW at University of California at Berkeley, entitled “GARDENS IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES: USES, THERAPEUTIC BENEFITS, AND DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS”. The Marcus/Barnes study was published by The Center for Health Design. Another example is the research that reported in an 1999 article in the American Medical Association entitled “The Arts of Healing” by M. J. Friedrich. Dr. Friedrich observes that “Postsurgery patients in Sweden who looked consistently at a painting of calm water and trees made a more rapid recovery than those whose view showed abstract rectilinear forms . . .” The foregoing articles are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Generally speaking, the research tends to show that calming images such as nature images reduce-a patient's anxiety level, blood pressure, and required medication so that the patient tends to recover sooner. Simply put, calming scenes enhance healing and to promote well-being for patients, staff and visitors. For this reason, or perhaps purely for subjective aesthetics, one may find framed nature pictures in a hospital environment. Generally speaking, however, hospitals and their patient recovery rooms tend to have a sterile “beige” look and feel that is not consistent with the research mentioned above.
In a typical hospital environment, some rooms are private, one patient rooms, but many rooms are designed to contain two or more patient beds. In either case, so-called hospital bed cubicle curtains are frequently used as privacy screens while medical procedures are performed or while patients are resting or visiting with family. The cubicle curtain, therefore, is one of the largest, most prominent items in the room and the patient is quite literally forced to view it for days on end. The conventional cubicle curtain, however, is usually provided in standard hospital monotones (e.g. beige) such that they tend to continually remind the patient of their ongoing health concerns.
There remains a need, therefore, for a healing enhancement apparatus in the form of a curtain that carries a calming image that brings the healing benefits of calming images to an enhanced level.